By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    Physicians
    Why Recruiting Physicians is More Challenging than Hiring Other Professionals
    December 17, 2024
    Telemedicine Apps
    Why Custom Telemedicine Apps Outperform Off‑the‑Shelf Solutions
    July 20, 2025
    improving patient experience
    6 Ways to Improve Patient Satisfaction Within Hospitals
    December 1, 2021
    Latest News
    5 Steps to a Promising Career as a Healthcare Administrator
    August 3, 2025
    Why Custom Telemedicine Apps Outperform Off‑the‑Shelf Solutions
    July 20, 2025
    How Probate Planning Shapes the Future of Your Estate and Family Care
    July 17, 2025
    Beyond Nutrition: Everyday Foods That Support Whole-Body Health
    June 15, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    Image
    Surge Exercises: Bombings and Blast Injuries
    April 21, 2013
    This Week in Washington
    March 27, 2012
    Are You Providing Value to Patients?
    June 12, 2013
    Latest News
    How IT and Marketing Teams Can Collaborate to Protect Patient Trust
    July 17, 2025
    How Health Choices and Legal Actions Intersect After an Injury
    July 17, 2025
    How communities and healthcare providers can address slip and fall injuries with legal awareness
    July 17, 2025
    Let Your Lawyer Handle the Work Before You Pay Medical Costs
    July 6, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Sequencing the Insurance Genome
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Policy & Law > Health Reform > Sequencing the Insurance Genome
Health ReformMedical InnovationsNewsPolicy & LawPublic Health

Sequencing the Insurance Genome

etwilson
etwilson
Share
4 Min Read
personalized medicine
SHARE

personalized medicineIf you build it, they will come.

The classic Field of Dreams tagline seems to be—perhaps unconsciously—informing the new Precision Medicine Initiative announced by President Obama as he heads into his lame duck period.

personalized medicineIf you build it, they will come.

The classic Field of Dreams tagline seems to be—perhaps unconsciously—informing the new Precision Medicine Initiative announced by President Obama as he heads into his lame duck period.

More Read

The Global Budget in Your Future
Collaborating for Community Health Innovation
How Acupuncture Helps Cure Infertility and Aid in Pregnancy
Paul Ryan Urges Major Reshaping of Medicare Sustainability
Why Vaping Is Healthier than Cigarette Smoking

Those in the field may recognize this as a next-generation re-branding of personalized medicine, the not-quite-new idea that treatment can be more targeted, more effective, and more personal than current best practices typically entail.

The White House’s Precision program builds on the premise of personalized medicine to specifically target cancer. The multi-million dollar investment is intended to move cancer treatment beyond management—which responds to symptoms and is decidedly reactive—and into prevention. Large-scale genetic sequencing will enable doctors to identify cancer in patients long before they exhibit symptoms, advancing screening to the point that proactive, lifesaving measures become the norm, and a cure is finally feasible.

If—and it is, at this point, still a Mount Everest of an ‘if’—the new initiative succeeds in overcoming all of the scientific, organizational, and practical challenges inherent in this undertaking, there remains a significant policy hurdle that no one involved has yet begun to address: access.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA—or Obamacare, if you prefer) came under fire during its initial implementation for denying patients access to the best cancer treatment hospitals in the country. In fact, this was not so much a feature of the new ACA as it was an integrated failure of the insurance marketplace.

The ACA hinges on getting more Americans covered by health insurance. As the name suggests, this requires many to purchase the most affordable—and therefore limited—coverage available on the new marketplaces. Making these plans affordable requires some cost-cutting on the part of the providers, achieved in part by severely limiting provider networks.

The most modern, cutting-edge hospitals are expensive to add to networks, and so are excluded from many of the entry-level (bronze, in the parlance of the marketplace) or even higher-premium plans (silver and gold).

So even without the next generation of medicine on the table, access to the best treatment available is, at best, extremely limited.

A miracle cure for cancer won’t go far unless the precision screening being developed is provided under more than a minority of hospital networks. More accurate, early screening alone would be worth some celebration. But the President’s allocations also specifically include the FDA, a clear sign that a cure is expected to accompany the genetic risk-analysis being developed.

The ACA failed to stop insurers from top-loading their tiered drug formularies to avoid paying to expensive patients and their treatments. There is no reason to expect that any forthcoming precision cancer drugs will somehow escape this profit-minded tactic.

For personalized care to be truly revolutionary, it needs to do more than take the best elements of scientific knowledge, technology, and virtual connectivity; it needs to be available to the general public who stand to benefit most. With all of the focus on the tech and modernity of personalized care, the importance of the policy challenges seems to be missing—undermining the very significance any potential success the new initiative might have enjoyed.

personalized medicine / shutterstock

Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

technology in medical research
The Tools Helping Medical Researchers See the Full Picture
News Technology
August 3, 2025
5 Steps to a Promising Career as a Healthcare Administrator
5 Steps to a Promising Career as a Healthcare Administrator
Health
July 31, 2025
holistic dental
Holistic Dentist Services Are Natural and Safe
Dental health Specialties
July 28, 2025
botox certification
Help Improve People’s Skin Health Via Botox Certification
Skin Specialties
July 22, 2025

You Might also Like

immigrants and medicare
FinanceHealth ReformHospital AdministrationPolicy & LawPublic Health

Health Care Spending: Why Immigrants Aren’t the Problem

July 30, 2013

The One Medicare Program that Actually Works

July 8, 2011

Looking for Lucrative Customers: Hospital Marketing Gets Serious

February 7, 2012
transparency in healthcare
BusinessHospital AdministrationMedical Education

What Does Transparency in Healthcare Mean to You?

August 3, 2014
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?